An Assessment of Genetic Diversity in Wild Diploid Wheat Triticum boeoticum from West of Iran Using RAPD, AFLP and SSR Markers

The applicability of RAPDs, AFLPs, and SSRs to examine genetic relationships in 36 populations of Triticum boeoticum from West of Iran was investigated. A total of 224 (135 polymorphic), 979 (429 polymorphic) and 246 (145 polymorphic) bands/alleles were detected using 14 RAPD primers, 17 AFLP primer combinations and 17 well distributed, mapped SSR markers, respectively. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value was high for SSRs (0.81) but low for RAPDs (0.45) and AFLPs (0.56) reflecting the hypervariability of the first system. AFLPs carried the highest Marker Index (MI) value (14.19), reflecting the high multiplexity ratio of this system. The correlation coefficients of similarity were statistically significant for all the three marker systems employed. UPGMA cluster plots separated the 36 populations into three major groups based on their RAPD fragment similarities, and into two major groups based on their AFLP, SSR and RAPD+AFLP+SSR genotypic similarities. These different marker systems should provide different levels of information, important in the management of germplasm resources. A good level of genetic diversity observed in the populations of Kermanshah and Lorestan Provinces shows that T. boeoticum invades a wide range of agroecosystems in the West of Iran.